Dragon Claw
by Mistress Tori
Summary: This is worst part of Domino City, so why are two very unlikely people are located in, the fight club, Dragon Claw. Hints of romance. Action of course. My summary sucks, sorry. Review please


It was around midnight, with no stars in the sky. The air was cold; it sent people with no jackets running for a source of heat. This part of Domino City you would not find one respectable person. This place where filthy just lingers everywhere and the whole area was mostly broken down buildings. Where gangs roamed, hookers made money, and you pray that you will not be someone's next target. Death hung in the air, which wasn't really surprising since this area is where most murders happen. This was the dark side of Domino City.

So why on earth was Kaiba here? Why was Kaiba, an extremely respectable person, located in the pit of Dragon Claw, a fight club?

The fight club wasn't that bad; its upstairs portion, a rowdy dirty bar, was different. No, downstairs was serious. It was clean, well lit and was almost totally devoid of anything except for the resting area, for the fighters, in one of the corners which contained a table surround by comfortable chairs. On the table wraps, water, and other various things; no beer, this was serious, no drunken idiots. The room itself was made up of concert walls and flooring, so if you fell, you fell hard. Dragon Claw was for the best of the best fighters.

Which was precisely why Kaiba was here. He needed new bodyguards for Mokuba, he had suspicion about the last two he hired and they proved to be correct. He purposely walked into them making a plan to hold Mokuba for ransom; of course he also caught it all on tape. When Seto Kaiba gets revenge, he gets _revenge_. Death would have been better.

So why a fight club? Well, beside that these fighters are the best and that they are street smart, there is another reason. That reason? These fighters are devoted, if pledged with someone or something they will not break it. Not for anything. Those were the true fighters of Dragon Claw.

But he was not the only odd one there. Ryou was there. And why was Ryou Bakura there? He was dragged there by Yami Bakura or rather Akefia now that he had his old body back. And he was craving a good fight. Plus he wanted Ryo to learn from it too. The boy was defenseless in his eyes. He had a strong heart that was for sure. But what if he wasn't there to protect him…he couldn't lose him, because he didn't have a strong enough heart. The only thing he could do was help tough his body out.

There were two type types of fights that went on in dragon Claw. There was single fights, that was one on one. The other type was team battle, where a team of two went up against another team of two. On the left side of the room was where the team battles took place, on the right the single fights. It was sort of like a competition. When one won they moved to the next round of harder fights. There was also rankings: newbies and up from there on. Newbies had to prove themselves in order to gain a harder battle.

The fights were on in full swing. Kaiba was located in the back of the room towards the middle glancing between the two fights trying to decide on who was worthy enough to take his job. He closed his eyes for a moment and when he reopened them with eyes went wide with surprise, he almost gasped in surprise but then again you would never find Seto Kaiba gasping out loud. Why? Because he saw Joey Wheeler coming down the stairs next to this girl. He was wearing his usual white shirt and some black shorts with some bandages wrapped around his hands. The girl had dark red hair that was in a pony-tail, so he didn't know the length, and hazel eyes. She was wearing a black sleeveless shirt, jean shorts, and also bandages around her hands. What amazed him more was that when they got closer to the team battles the crowd began to part for them. Kaiba started walking towards them.

Ryo and Akefia were heading to the crowd where the team battles were going on. Akefia had finished a fight where he emerged victorious, so he decided to take a little breather and watch his first team battle.

A team of two big buff guys, one a white guy with a brow mullet and the other a tan guy who was bald, were complaining. They were newbies and wanted to fight harder guys. It was starting to annoy the crowd; you have to earn your respect here and the right for a harder fight.

"We'll take them on." Called Joey Wheeler, as he and the girl stepped into the center of the ring.

Murmurs of the 'the newbies are going down', 'she always kicks ass on this night', 'I feel bad for them', and 'Tiger is always terrible on this night' filled the room. Some people who were watching the single fights started to file over to the team battle side of the room.

The newbies were laughing because they towered over the two. Then the girl said, "The bigger they are the hard they fall." That shut them up.

Then she and Joey attacked. It was so fast that the two idiots didn't react. She gave a fast kick to the bald guy's side and Joey gave a fast punch to the mullet man's stomach where the liver was located. When the two idiots finally got over their stupor and the pain, they both tried to land a punch but Joey and the girl just dodged. She landed a kick to the bald guy's other side. Joey dodged another punch and landed two of his own.

Akefia was engrossed in watching the girl, her fluid movements and the gracefully art of the way she fought. His heart beat quicken watching her. The only other person who made him like this was Ryou. He decided right then and there that we wanted her. Just the way he wanted Ryou. He didn't think she would be easy to get, but he loved a good challenge.

Seto Kaiba was also watching the fight with obvious interest. He was watching both, but he was more enthralled watching Joey. He never knew that Joey was this strong, this quick, and this graceful. He was quick moving and quick thinking. He knew when to block and where to find the guy's, he was fighting, openings.

The girl was quick and gave him no time to land a good kick or punch. The guy tried to grab her leg at one point but she moved and gave him a good punch to his gut. She was vicious, normal she's not this unforgiving. She was only concentrating on the fight and giving him as much pain as she could. You see she was trying to forget her pain that this day caused; today was the anniversary of her lover's death. She always fought on this day, to try to forget.

Let's take a look at her past and see why today is so tragic. Her lover was Rebecca. Now don't be confused, she swung both ways. She was kicked out of her house and disowned because she loved Rebecca. Why fall in love with a girl if that would happen? It was because Rebecca was her everything. We've all heard that if you loved someone enough you would do anything to make that person happy and be with them forever. It was true with her. Now Rebecca was very pretty, with her brown hair and brown eyes, but she wasn't gorgeous. But to her she was the most beautiful person she had ever met. Rebecca has her soul mate. And they were going to start their life together. However, one day they went shopping and were almost home, but she forgot something, so she told Rebecca to wait there in the alleyway; she'd be right back. When she came back a horrible sight met her eyes. There was Rebecca raped and killed in the alleyway. To this day she blames her self. She left and came to this part of Domino city to live, where else could she live, she didn't want to be reminded of Rebecca. And to learn how to fight, she didn't want anyone else she loved to get hurt.

The bald guy was hunched over because he been kicked and punched so many times in the stomach. She took this moment of weakness, came around to his side and kicked him down in the neck, hard. He fell to the concert floor fast and hard. He tried to get back up but she kicked the back of his head. This time he didn't get up.

"Joey can I cut in?" she asked.

"By all means." Joey replied smiling and got out of the way.

Joey was doing great on his own but he knew she wanted to kick ass today. He knew a little about her past, so he just stood there and watched. It was over fairly fast, he had given the mullet man a lot of damage.

There was cheering when it was over, it was a good fight. She came and gave Joey a hug. She then got on his back and he carried them over to the resting area.

Seto Kaiba had a weird feeling as we watched the two interact. He also felt slight angry at the girl when she smiled at Joey and hugged him; especially when he gave her a big smile back. He has never felt this way before, what was it?

Back at the resting area she and Joey were talking, but she was anxious to begin another fight. Then she saw something that stopped her mid-sentence. She saw brown eyes. Brown eyes that looked exactly like Rebecca's. She got out of the chair and zoomed over to the person with those eyes.

As it turned out it was Ryou Bakura's eyes.

He was a bit startled when she suddenly appeared before him. She looked over him and seemed to be struggling with something.

"What's your name?" she finally asked.

"Ryou Bakura. May I know yours?"

She stared in his eyes, "Its tiger."

"That's an unusual name. Is it your real name?" He was just curious.

"No, but it's what I call myself now." She said after a few seconds.

"You fight beautifully." He said smiling.

That smile took her breath away, it was just like Rebecca's. Finally she said, "You shouldn't be here…..it's not safe. I would hate to see you get hurt. Do you want me to walk you back to house? Or do have a car? I'll walk you to it"

Akefia who was watching this whole exchange, finally came over, "He's with me."

While this was going on Seto Kaiba was talking to Joey about the jobs.

Joey was looking around the room for her, and finally spotted her mass of dark red hair; he ran over to her.

"Tiger guess what we were offered jobs by Seto Kaiba, _Seto Kaiba_! Can you believe it?" He was basically jumping with excitement. "We'll finally can make good money! All-why is Ryou and Akefia here?" He asked turning towards them.

"Because we wanted to be here." Akefia said smirking.

"I was dragged." Stated Ryou.

Tiger turned to Joey, "Is it worthy it?" she asked seriously.

"Yes." Joey nodded.

"Alright then, I trust your judement." She turned back to Ryou, "Bye Ryou." She said smiling. Then she turned to Akefia, "Take care of him, he's special." She said with a serious note in her voice.

She then followed Joey to meet Seto Kaiba.


End file.
